Fantastic Four #17: Flame On 41

Fantastic Four #17, page 6, panel 9

Story: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby

Inking: Dick Ayers

Lettering: Art Simek

You remember how Walt Simonson, in Fantastic Four #350, revealed that many of Doctor Doom’s appearances had actually been Doombots when the real Doctor Doom showed up? And how a rumour grew that he had a master list of Doom’s appearances, detailing which ones were Doctor Doom and which ones were just Doombots? (That rumour was false by the way) Well, I really wish Doom’s appearance in this book was just a Doombot.

Why? Because his plan, certainly at this stage, is just really weird and strange. He creates these cloud-like, insubstantial robots to follow the team around, obstensibly to scan them and their powers. However, there is absolutely nothing subtle about these robots at all, instantly alerting the team to the fact that something clearly isn’t right. The visual also looks as goofy as hell, meaning that this story looks as weird as it sounds.